New Bicycle

Today, I picked up my new 24-speed Schwinn bicycle from A&M Cycle. The bike looks nice. I had a bit of a misadventure getting it home. I'd planned on taking the front tire off the bike, stowing the rest of the bike in my car's trunk and the front tire in the front seat. To my surprise, the bike sans front tire was too big to fit in the trunk or the back of my car. I ended up buying a bicycle carrier so I could get my new bike home. I haven't ridden the bike yet as by the time I finished dinner, it was getting late. I hope to ride for the first time tomorrow and see how it does. It promises to be interesting as there have been some changes since I had my last 10-speed. The gear shifters are on the handle bars and the brakes are next to the neck of the bike. There are 2 levers for each set of gears. 1 lever shifts up while the other shifts down. The man at A&M Cycle said the gear shifters are an improvement. We'll see. Stay tuned for more updates.

A&M Cycle

Friday, I visited A&M Cycle in Bowie, Maryland. I wanted to get a new Schwinn touring bicycle. The Schwinn website (http://www.schwinn.com/) stated that the only Schwinn dealership close to where I live was A&M Cycle in Bowie. You can buy Schwinn bikes at Target, Wal-Mart and other such stores but, the support you can get from such stores is questionable in my opinion. I doubt they're really going to know the bikes that well. A Schwinn dealership will know the bikes as the specialize in them. Why go with a Schwinn bike? In my case, because of the favorable impression I have of them already. As a kid, I had 2 Schwinn bikes. One was a regular Men's bike that my family called the Green Monster. It was green and big and damn near indestructible. It was a great bike. The other was my first ever 10-speed. It was fast and fun. Sadly, that bike taught me how important it was to have a lock and chain. I foolishly parked it but, I didn't lock it. I kept checking on it while I watch some friends play a video game. Apparently others were watching the bike too and decided to steal it. I quickly noticed my bike was gone, ran out to where it had been and saw the thieves ride away on it. I never saw the bike again. I never forgot the hard lesson.

A&M Cycle's shop wasn't anything to impress. It wasn't super big and, it didn't have much of a selection. They did have a fair number of used bikes which didn't look that great but presumably were mechanically sound and possibly cheap. Another annoyance is they don't have a website so it was hard to find out the days and hours they're open. As far as I can tell, the shop is a 1 man operation. All those negatives said, the shop does have plusses. First, the man who runs the shop knows bikes. He knows how they should fit and, he knows how to fix them. This was important to me as I wanted to get a bike that would fit me and if I have any problems with it, they'll fix it. One of my major problems with buying a bike at Wal-Mart is I don't think they could fix the bikes they sell. Another plus about this shop is the guy running could tell me the advantages and disadvantages of the different bikes Schwinn sells. I was looking at 2 specific bikes - the World Tour DLX and the Le Tour. The Tour DLX is a touring bike. That means it is made for long rides or commuting and comes with the equipment for that such as fenders and a rack to carry stuff on. The Le Tour is a speed bike. It is made for fast cycling. The shop owner was able to explain the differences between the 2 bikes and aid me in which one to go with. Eventually, I put a non-refundable deposit down on a World Tour DLX. While the shop didn't have one in stock, bikes it special orders usually arrive in 2 to 3 days barring weekends. Mine should arrive by Wednesday of this week. Once it arrives, they'll check the bike and fine tune it. By next weekend, I should have my first ever 24-speed bicycle. It boggles to think of a bike having that many gears. Incredibly, the Le Tour Super has 30 gear settings! I don't know how much so many gears help. I'll find out when I start riding my new bike. It should be fun and, it should have one other major benefit - it'll be good exercise. I need to do more of that and cycling is a fun form of exercise to me. I look forward to riding my new bike. Stay tuned for more posts on this. Cheers all!

Today's Pet Store Moved To Gateway Overlook Mall

One of my favorite shops at The Mall in Columbia is Today's Pet. They're a pet store that sells a number of different kinds of pets. My favorite are the adorable puppies. I always check to see if they have any Pug puppies. I haven't given up on my dream of owning a Pug puppy some day. During my last visit to their shop, I was surprised to find out they're moving to a larger place at Gateway Overlook Mall. Gateway Overlook is a strip mall located in Columbia, Maryland off of Maryland 175 and 108 and just off the exit from Maryland 95. It has a fair number of stores including Costco, Best Buy, Office Depot and Trader Joe's. It has ample parking. The new store will offer a greater selection of pets and services however, I think they will lose a lot of walk in business. One plus to them being in The Mall in Columbia was they were easily seen and thereby attracted potential customers who were walking by. They won't get that kind of business at Gateway Overlook. People who shop there are going there purposefully to get whatever. Still, I look forward to checking out their new shop which will be located right next to Costco. Someday I'll buy a Pug puppy who I'll name Muggsy. It'll be pretty cool except when he craps in the apartment or home I'll have then. Then, I suspect I'll call him something less kind. Cheers all.

Back on the Internet

To my surprise, I'm back on the Internet. The middle of the week before last, I started experiencing unfathomable problems trying to connect. I'd had problems before with my Sprint U-300 USB modem but, I'd been able to overcome them - not this time. Apparently, my modem bought the big one for good for some unknown reason. Sprint's tech support did their dangdest to get the modem to work on my super duper Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of it. The tech wizards at the local Sprint store said the modem was fine but, I was never able to get to work on my laptop again. Sprint kindly sent me a new modem which showed signs of working except I couldn't get it to activate. Strangely, Sprint told me I needed a 3G/4G Internet plan for the new modem but, I didn't for my U-300 which is also 3G/4G. Explain that one to me. Anyway, Sprint did get the new modem to work and, knock on wood, I won't have to make anymore daily trips to Panera to get on the Internet. We'll see. Also, I'm counting my blessings on another score. I found out Sprint doesn't offer my unlimited Internet plan anymore. Now, the best you can do is for $70, you get 5 gigabytes of download. Every megabyte over that costs you 25 cents. I don't have any idea how much I download. That's why I went with the unlimited Internet plan years ago. I'm counting my blessings that Sprint has allowed me to keep the plan. I pity the folks who have to worry about how much they download. I know downloads for my Garmin GPS would be a killer. Anyway, now that I'm back on-line, look for more posts. I've got some catching up to do. Stay tuned. Cheers!

Laurel Maryland Panera Bread Cafe

Earlier this week, my modem apparently bit the dust. The tech support folks at Sprint did their best to get it to work on my new Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of that. To my surprise, Sprint is going to send my a new modem with the latest software. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new modem will work. I had considerable problems with their U-300 modem. While waiting for my new modem to arrive, I've been using the free WiFi at the Panera Bread Cafe at 3301 Corridor Marketplace, Laurel, Maryland. The cafe is nice and, the free WiFi is really handy. Apparently, it is also very popular as I've seen a number of people in here with their laptops. I suspect the WiFi helps draw business in for Panera. I know it does from me. I don't buy a lot of their stuff but, I do make sure I buy something. I wouldn't feel right using their WiFi and not buying something from their cafe. I've been drinking a lot of their frozen lemonades. They're pretty good. That's all for this post. Cheers all!